In the wake of beating, a claim of self-defense

Tuesday

A woman related to two men charged with beating a man in a city home said the pair acted in self-defense because the man had threatened them with a gun.

City police, however, say there is no evidence to support her claim.

The alleged assailants are father and stepson, Terrence D. Darcy, 45, and Antonio Burgos, 23, both of 98 Pleasant St. They were charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and sent to Ontario County Jail. Burgos posted bail, while Darcy is being held without bail.

The 50-year-old victim, whom police have not yet identified, has been upgraded from guarded to satisfactory condition at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, hospital officials said this morning. He suffered several skull fractures, an eye injury, a broken rib and a collapsed lung in the beating at his Beals Street home Friday night, police said.

Sandra Darcy — wife of Terrence Darcy and Burgos’ mother — said the pair went to the Beals Street home at about 9 p.m., to try to persuade the man to leave the home, due to a situation that involved another of Darcy’s relatives.

Sandra Darcy claimed that Terrence Darcy and Burgos even planned to offer the man money to stay in a motel. But when the two men arrived at the home, the man allegedly pulled out a gun — that is, from what Sandra Darcy has been told by her son.

“By no means did they go over there to hurt him,” Sandra Darcy insisted. “He was going to blow them both away, and they were scared. My son has never been so scared in his whole life.”

City police paint a different picture. It is one without much detail, since they are releasing little about the investigation so far, but they maintain there is no proof of any weapon.

“Right now, there’s no evidence that a gun was brandished or displayed or that the victim was ever in possession of a gun that evening,” said Detective Scott Kadien Monday. “The witnesses’ statements don’t support that. The evidence at the crime scene doesn’t support that.”

The victim’s name has not been disclosed because police were still trying to reach some of his family members.